Referral Program

[daniel@procarpet]

I am getting ready to launch a referral program. I think it is time to start rewarding my customers for their referrals with something other than a thank you. I want to keep it simple and easy to follow. I know a lot of guys give 10 percent of the cleaning to the customer which is good, but I am just weighing my options. What kind of program are you guys using, and what would you recommend?

 

[Brian R]

Decent idea but if you are really good then your customer's reward is the fact that they CAN and DO refer you to all their peeps.

If I find a good restaurant, I tell everyone about it...or if I find a good program for my company like Service Monster...I tell everyone about it.

Giving back SHOULD be in the form of thanks yous...maybe some candy, or gift certificates.

I would imagine any good customer wouldn't feel comfortable getting a check for something like that.

This is just how I feel, but I have had some realtors tell me this as well.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I agree with you Brian. I have never given anything other than a thank you card. However, I think customers would appreciate getting a discount on their cleaning. I have to decide quick becasue I am putting a site together and would be pushing the program on the site. I was thinking of something like this:

20 dollars off your next cleaning for each customer you refer us to.
Minimum charges still apply.

We have a fantastic referral program to reward our valued customers for referring us to their friends and family members. The majority of our business is repeat customers and referrals. Since we do very little paid advertising, we rely on referrals from our customers. This is just our way of saying thanks.

How our referral program works:

We will send you a certificate for 20 dollars off any of our services for each customer you send to us, which is good for the first time we clean for that customer. Our minimum charges apply unless you collect five or more certificates and then the minimum charge is waived.
We make it easy for you to refer us: We will give you five certificates good for 20 dollars off any of our services each that you can hand out to your friends and family at the end of your cleaning. All you have to do is sign your name on the certificate and pass them out. In addition to you receiving 20 dollars off your next cleaning, the person you give the certificate to will receive 20 dollars off their cleaning also. Remember we guarantee all of our work. So you can refer us with confidence.

 

[Brian R]

That sounds pretty good. As long as you can keep them from feeling like it is work.

I like the idea of them handing out the 20 dollar off coupons and then getting 20 dollars off the othe person uses.

As long as you can track it and make it seem easy you will have a winner.


I was just talking about giving people cash. Not worth it at 10 or 20 bucks a pop...but money off is worth 5 times more than real money in our world.

 

[DevilDog]

"I was just talking about giving people cash. Not worth it at 10 or 20 bucks a pop...but money off is worth 5 times more than real money in our world."

Can you clarify that statement because it doesn't seem to make very much sense.

As far as rewarding clients with cash based on a certain percentage of the job they referred you to. That is a GREAT idea and works for a lot of people...but some people do not like it.

So do it this way..explain to them how your referral program works. Tell them that if they refer you to someone you will give them 10% in a cash reward. Or you will give them that amount off of their next job...or you will donate that amount to a charity that they like and support.

Some people do not like the idea of kickbacks. They feel they are getting paid to refer people to your company but that is not true. They are getting rewarded by YOU for them referring you. They are not being forced to refer you and if they refer you to just get the referral award that is THEIR issue..NOT YOURS.

Many companies have rewarded their clients and done quite well doing so. Also, giving something like tickets to a special event or a great dinner at a nice restaurant do work.

 

[DevilDog]

Yes, just calling them and thanking them goes a long ways....but ALSO giving someone a check really helps with some people.

 

[Brian R]

"I was just talking about giving people cash. Not worth it at 10 or 20 bucks a pop...but money off is worth 5 times more than real money in our world."

Can you clarify that statement because it doesn't seem to make very much sense.

I was just saying that money taken off their next cleaning would mean more to them than money given to them in the form of check or cash.


I sometimes overpay on phonebills or electric bills or whatever to make next months bill seem a little smaller...plus rounding out the previous bill to the 100 dollar makes book keeping a little easier.

If they refer out say 3 jobs that you made 200 bucks on each...it would be 60 bucks off that customers next bill...could even be more.

 

[Brian R]

all you have to do is call them up on the phone and thank them it's that simple

people love to be acknowledged for doing something nice

and when you clean for them again you clean the lazy boy for no charge and don't make a deal out of it or an extra room or what ever.


a pre-printed thank you cards SUCK

again a simple phone call and say thanks


T

You suck. :?
A phone call is great but maybe invasive. An email is way better because you have to put more thought into it and they can read both that and thank you card in their underwear.

And yes the thought of them in their underwear turns me on a little...but that's besides the point you perv.

 

[Brian R]

You've suddenly become a stalker at that point Teri.

Because that's what the home owner want's after the the carpet cleaning is a lonely, sweaty ass carpet cleaner calling them after they figured they were done with the whole ordeal to say "Hey, just making sure again that everything was alright." Yea yea , sure sure.
You've already said thank you at the job sight.

A thank you card is the same as getting a wedding gift and saying thank you and then sending out thank you cards.

How long have you been doing this?

 

[ksnyder]

10% cleaning gift certificate worked best for us.

 

[Doug D]

We send a rebate certificate that they can either turn into cash or free cleaning. Cash really works when you give 10% of what their referral spends. What speaks for volume on a 1000.00 job, $10.00 or $100.00. How many more referrals are you going to see if you pay someone 10 dollars or 100 dollars? We also call them with a thank you as well. Has worked for us for 7years.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

As we speak the $20 off card to the client and to the referral makes up more than a third

of my new clients. They are pre-qualified leads. You don't have to sell yourself, also command

a higher price, just go do the job. It also insures that the client that referred you will probably

use your services again to get there $20.